Premieredge internal news

Developing our client service using Autotask

As a valued client, you should recently have received an email from us letting you know that we have introduced a leading business management platform into the business – Autotask.

Why are we letting you know this? Well, quite simply, we believe it will help us to offer you higher customer service levels going forward including improved communication, better efficiency, superior reporting and more services. There are also some advantages for billing that we will come onto later.

This article breaks down the benefits you can expect, as well as what happens next.

The everyday advantage – progress updates on support queries

You have always known that when you give us a call or send us an email, we will work on a solution to your problem. What probably hasn’t always been so visible though is what the progress on that query is, and even sometimes when the query has been resolved.

The introduction of Autotask enables us to log each support ‘ticket’ as we would always have done, but also to keep you informed via the system both of the priority that ticket has been afforded and also what progress has been made. For clients who have moved to one of our new support packages, this means they will also know when the problem will be fixed under their SLA (Service Level Agreement). Once a query has been resolved, we will close the ticket and let you know – giving you the opportunity to respond should you feel the problem has not been resolved satisfactorily.

The strategic advantage – improved reporting and analysis

By moving all parts of our business into Autotask, we are now able to provide deeper yet clearer reporting, using a simple traffic light system to keep you informed about all elements of your IT setup. We can now run executive reports showing the overall health of your IT network (including patch management, asset management, monitoring and antivirus).

On a day to day basis this means we can more easily spot if there are any potential issues, probably before you do, and work to resolve these.

From a strategic point of view, by analysing these reports we can let you know what is working well in your IT, and where you might need to make improvements. This also means we have more robust data to work with you on your strategic IT planning for the future, by helping you to understand where investments are likely to be required over the coming years.

A greater range of services

The implementation of Autotask will also enable us to be able to introduce new services to our customers, as the platform provides us with the visibility to back them up.

The first of these is penetration testing (via a specialist partner), so that we can help you to understand better whether there are cyber-security risks within your business and where they lie. This is not just down to the security of the systems you use, but also the behaviour of your staff. More about penetration testing and Cyber Essentials certification will follow in another email.

Simplified Billing

Until now clients may have been billed on different cycles for the different services you receive both from us and third-party services (unless billed annually). Using Autotask we are able to move to monthly invoicing, offering greater visibility of exactly what you are being billed and also potentially helping budgeting and cashflow as costs are spread out across the year.

What happens next

Autotask has already been introduced to ticketing and billing, and you may have started to see some differences in the service you are receiving.

All support clients are also being contacted about meeting up to talk about moving to our new contracts, which lay out exactly what products and services we are providing you with, and include service level agreements (SLA’s) so you know how quickly you can expect a resolution to your queries.

At those meetings, we are also taking the opportunity to share analysis of the new reports we are running with you, to feed into your IT strategy for the future.

In Summary

We think the introduction of Autotask will herald a real improvement in the communication and strategic input we are able to provide our clients with. It is a huge change for our business, so please do bear with us and keep us informed if you come across any hiccups your end, so we can make the move to the new system as seamless as possible.

'When I pick up the phone, I know I am going to get a friendly voice on the end of it who will know who I am (most of the team even recognise my voice!) and how to accommodate our requirements.'